A Matter of Trust
by Ichiban Victory
Summary: One-shot inspired by the new anime, Slayers Revolution. Spoilers from the novels and Revolution to be found within! On the eve of their venture to Saillune, Lina has a rude awakening...


_"But you know," she added, still sporting that same strange smile, "I really don't like that you can't trust people in your own family around here."  
It could've been my imagination, but just then I sensed a great sadness in Amelia behind that bubbly facade. There was definitely more to that girl than met the eye._

_-The Slayers Book 4: Battle of Saillune_

0-0-0-0

"I can't believe it, the rarest find in the world, and it's all mine!" Lina laughed with glee as she stared down at the treasure horde she'd just uncovered. Ancient coins and rare artifacts stretched on for as far as the eye could see. She was just about to plop down and sort through her find when a prolonged whimper pulled her back to reality.

"Darn it, Amelia," Lina seethed as she rolled over on her bed, intent to fall back to sleep and resume her dream. Lina's attempts were futile, as Amelia continued to carry on in her sleep, even muttering unintelligible things.

Lina finally had had enough and sat up, pillow in hand. "Shut up already!" Lina drove her statement home by chucking the pillow at Amelia's bed, thinking it would end her roommate's noisy sleep session.

Unfortunately, it instead caused Amelia to scream in terror! Lina was so taken off guard that she fell from her bed before rolling over to Amelia's to clap her hand over the screaming girl.

"Be quiet, be quiet! You're just dreaming! Wake up, Amelia!"

Lina's words did nothing to soothe Amelia, instead she carried on with her wailing. Only Lina's hand slapped over her mouth kept her from waking the entire inn.

Lina winced, knowing this would not end well.

The room's door was suddenly forced open, revealing Zelgadis, Pocota and Gourry's concerned faces. Nope, not well at all...

"What's wrong, what happened?!" All three called out at once.

Lina screeched in response, wishing she had something to throw at the intruders! "Get out of here, she's just dreaming! Just a dream. You're not doing anything to improve the situation!"

The three intruders exited nearly as fast as they'd come, Pocota and Zelgadis shooting a last glance into the room before the door shut behind them.

"Can't drop a pin without someone freaking out about it..." Lina muttered under her breath. Back to matters at hand, Lina attempted to shake Amelia from whatever nightmare she was having, still keeping her hand in place to stifle the yelling as much as possible.

"Come on, come on, _wake up_ already!" Lina finally cast a Lighting spell, surprised to see that Amelia's eyes were in fact open, and staring right back into Lina's. "Oh...well..." Then Lina noticed that Amelia's eyes were glazed over, whatever Amelia was seeing was not actual reality. "Great," Lina muttered.

She shook Amelia's shoulders harder this time, trying to make her voice sound more soothing since the harsher approach hadn't helped at all. "Wake up, Amelia, come on. It's just a dream. Only a dream! Come on, I don't have all night for this..."

Amelia's cries stopped almost as soon as they'd started. She suddenly blinked from the light, a look of utter confusion on her face. When her eyes settled on Lina's face, her panicked breathing finally stopped.

"Much better," Lina sighed, finally removing her hand from Amelia's mouth. She made a face as she wiped her palm on her night shirt. "Care to tell me what that was all about?"

Amelia blinked a few times, staring about the room in wonder. She gave Lina a puzzled look, but then a look of realization struck. "Blue eyes," she replied.

"Huh?" Lina hadn't been expecting that response. She scrunched up her nose. "What's that supposed to mean."

Amelia kept looking at Lina, as if to assure herself Lina were truly there. "I...I saw blue eyes. _Their_ eyes." She turned away and buried her face in her hands, as if to hide from the gaze of said eyes.

"Blue eyes..." Lina tapped her chin in thought. "Gourry and Zelgadis have blue eyes..."

Outside the room, the two blue-eyed men in question looked at each other curiously. Pocota shot both a weird look before turning an ear back to the closed door.

Amelia shook her head, then lifted her gaze back to Lina's. "No, not their eyes." She looked past Lina to a nearby vanity, her reflection causing her to frown as that all too familiar shade of blue stared back at her.

Lina looked on, still puzzling over the cryptic statement, until she saw what Amelia was doing. Blue eyes... Their blue eyes. "Oooooh," Lina replied. "I see now. You mean your family, don't you?"

Amelia shuddered but gave a nod.

"But why this now? What brought this on?" Lina searched her thoughts. "Wizer did drop that bomb about your kingdom and...oh. Oh, I see." Lina finally opted to zip her lips before she treaded too far into sensitive territory.

Amelia gave another nod. "Tell me, Lina-san, what is it like to have a family you can trust?"

"I don't know if I'm the one who should be answering this," Lina scratched her shoulder nervously. "What with my big sis and all..."

Amelia stared back at Lina. "You've mentioned before being scared that she would kill you, but would she really?"

Lina suddenly wished she'd just let Amelia sleep on. What was a sleepless night when it didn't require one delving into highly personal matters? Lina wanted for nothing more than to get back to bed and pretend this hadn't happened, but Amelia was staring her down with those piercing blue eyes.

Lina finally shook her head. "No, no she wouldn't. She may be harsh at times, but I've never doubted that she loved me."

Amelia gave a slight smile. "It must be nice," she looked toward the window but only saw darkness there. "Daddy's the only one I can really trust not to stab me in the back, what with Gracia being gone..." She shook her head and turned her gaze down to her hands.

Lina watched in silence, not sure what to do.

"It's ironic, isn't it?" Amelia asked, still looking down at her hands.

"What's that?" Lina replied, not sure where Amelia's thoughts were going.

Amelia flexed her fingers. "To specialize in the healing arts when I come from a family of murdering backstabbers. And even then, I still couldn't..can't prevent the inevitable. Sometimes I question Daddy's intentions, but I think it was his way of saving me from more suffering."

Lina gave a short nod.

"I don't live in the palace, you know, but in the priestess' quarters where I too learned the art. Daddy said it was to teach me humility, but I think he was trying to keep me away from harm. If only Gracia could have...if...if only..." Amelia stopped talking, a tear dripping onto her hands.

Lina continued to watch in silence, not wanting to disrupt Amelia more than necessary. It was obvious the girl had been holding a lot in this entire time.

Amelia suddenly looked up, saw Lina's serious expression, and gave her a smile. "Well, they say you can't choose family but you can choose your friends, right?"

Lina gave a slight smile back. "Right."

"I've never thanked you for that, Lina-san. For the friendship you, Gourry-san, Zelgadis-san...even Pocota-san have all given me. It's nice to finally be surrounded by people I can trust entirely."

Back outside in the hall, Gourry was beaming while Zelgadis and Pocota tried to stare at anything but the other, blushes evident on their faces.

"Hey, friends look out for each other." Lina gave a light tap to Amelia's arm with her fist. "We protect our own." Lina suddenly shot Amelia an evil grin. "And besides..."

Amelia perked up. "Besides?"

Lina's grin got bigger. "It's nice to finally be able to show off!"

"Oh, you!" Amelia stuck out her tongue before attacking Lina with her pillow.

"Hey now, hey now! You can't declare war when you still have my pillow!" Lina ducked more incoming blows before retrieving her thrown pillow from enemy territory. She then rose dramatically to her feet. "It's on, now. Don't think I'll go easy on you, either!"

Anything else said was drowned out in shrieks and laughter. The three interlopers finally shook their heads at each other before getting up to head back to bed.

Zelgadis paused by the door a minute longer, his thoughts still racing. If anything, tonight's revelations only urged him to stick that much closer to Amelia's side. What with the incoming battle with Zanaffar, he wanted for nothing more than to be sure she survived it.

One last glance at the closed door, Zelgadis finally gave a slight grin before following the others back to their much quieter room.

0-0-0-0

**Author's Notes: **_Wondering where this came from? This is totally and completely courtesy of Slayers Revolution, the long-fabled but finally true FOURTH season of the Slayers anime! It's made me so happy to see a new season of Slayers, especially one that's returned to the novels for plot and character inspiration. And Pocota's not nearly as bad as people would fear he would be, so don't think he's some weird Pokémon/Digimon rip-off because he's not. He has much more edge..._

_Anyway, __I wrote this assuming people would know a lot of things about the characters, since it's kind of awkward conversation for characters to spell out every little thing. Examples:_

"I don't live in the palace, you know, but in the priestess' quarters where I too learned the art. Daddy said it was to teach me humility, but I think he was trying to keep me away from harm. If only Gracia could have...if...if only..."

_Here Amelia is thinking of the night her mother was assassinated. Gracia was involved in the fight (and it's said she was the intended target of the assassination), but she wasn't able to save her mother from dying, despite being very skilled in White Magic._

"It's nice to finally be able to show off!"

_In this case, Lina's thinking of her older sister, Luna. When Lina was at home, she was always in Luna's shadow, despite becoming quite skilled in magic. One just can't compete when their older sister is the Knight of Ceipheed! oO This was one of the factors for Lina leaving home, and no doubt one reason Lina makes it a point for anyone and everyone to know who she is. She doesn't want to be in her sister's shadow any longer!_

_As for the reasons behind Amelia living in the priestess quarters..don't take what I wrote as canon. It just makes sense to me is all. Plus, Hajime Kanzaka had that little blurb about only males being able to assume the throne in Saillune, so it's not like Amelia or Gracia would just be staying in the palace all the time, anyway. Sort of funny that Alfred seemed much more the palace snob than Amelia, but then he was stupid and got himself killed over trying to assume the throne._

_Amelia really does have a messed up family..._

_As to why Amelia didn't strike out at Lina in her sleep, I'm going with the impression that she'd not want to fight against her family, even those who wished to do her harm. (Note: Amelia had no part of Randy's death in the novels!) She was even wanting to keep Alfred alive after he'd revealed he'd double-crossed Lina and the rest! It really must be hard to love people that you can never fully trust to have your best interest at heart._

_Lastly, yes, I am again working on Here With Me. It feels good to be back to writing again! On that note, people who read and favorite my fics, please do me the courtesy of leaving a review! I'm flattered you liked my writing enough to favorite it, but that doesn't tell me how or why. In fact, it's aggravating since it feels like people are taking the easy way out. I'm no mind reader, and I don't bite off heads for leaving reviews. Reviews (laden with comments and critiques, I can handle them) make me happy, and can even help inspire me in writing._

_So be kind, please review!_


End file.
